Cindy Sheehan Finds Out Thugocracy Isn’t Fun

Just 5 days before the election, at 3a.m. on October 30th, all of the front windows of the Cindy Sheehan for Congress campaign offices were shattered. Although staffers had been in the office less than an hour earlier, no one was in the building at the time of the incident. No one was hurt and there were no witnesses. Cindy Sheehan is a candidate for Congress in California’s 8th Congressional District race against incumbent Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).

“It seems to have been a calculated intimidation tactic,” said Tiffany Burns, the Cindy for Congress campaign manager. “One of our computers was stolen, but no other property was taken from our offices and no surrounding buildings were targeted. Clearly they wanted to both frighten us and to gather information.” Total damage to the campaign office is currently estimated at more than $5,000.

Frankly, I’m not much of a fan of Cindy Sheehan. But, as we say these days, she is what she is–an real anti-war activist in the tradition of those who marched, demonstrated and even terrorised (like William Ayers) in protest of the Vietnam War.

But she’s finding out that what Leon Trotsky found out the hard way: you can consign your right-wing opponents to the asheap of history (as he did in the wake of the Russian Revolution) and still find yourself on the wrong side of the revolution. Which makes me wonder: how many of Barack Obama’s fervent supporters are going to end up in the same boat? As Michael Barone calls it, it’s thugocracy, and it isn’t fun.